Skip to Main Content

Research Commons: Āwhina | Help

A guide to Research Commons - University of Waikato's home for open access research

FAQs

What types of research can I deposit in Research Commons?

Research Commons accepts a variety of scholarly material including, but not limited to, refereed articles, conference papers, book chapters, reports, code and creative materials including NTROs.

My output is not a conventional article, it is a performance/composition/exhibition/creative work etc, can I deposit this in Research Commons?

The repository can accept a wide variety of media types and files. The descriptive repository record for such items can be enhanced with copies of a programme, photographs, video etc. As with articles, what you can deposit will depend on your contractual arrangements with third parties such as publishers.

Why should authors deposit the accepted manuscript version?

Sometimes called a ‘postprint’, the accepted manuscript version of a paper incorporates the revisions made from the peer review process (if any), but has not had the changes to formatting and layout that will morph it into the final published article. Authors should deposit the accepted manuscript version as in most cases this is the one publishers allow us to make openly available.

The journal allows me to deposit the final published article, do I need to deposit the accepted manuscript version as well?

No, the final published version is all that is needed in this case.

What happens if a mistake is made and an item is made open access against publisher copyright regulations?

The Library undertakes to carefully check publisher policies and apply an appropriate level of access. The University will assume responsibility for any errors. If a mistake has been made, the Library will receive a take-down notice from the publisher, which it will immediately comply with.

I already put papers up on the web/personal pages/academia.edu/Mendeley/ResearchGate anyway, why should I bother putting them in Research Commons as well?

The reputational benefits to the University are stronger when your research is clearly associated with a University service. Also, precisely because there are so many other services it is much simpler to deposit items in one place (where they will be curated indefinitely by the Library) and link to them.

External services can change their policies on the availability of deposited works or they can be acquired (for example, Mendeley was taken over by Elsevier in 2012). Research Commons, as part of the University, is not subject to these occurrences and so can assure your work of long-term availability.

When you send outputs to Research Commons the copyright status of your work will be checked by trained professionals so you can be sure you are correctly complying with publishers’ policies. Further, Research Commons can deliver usage statistics to assess the impact of your work and is configured for visibility in search engines such as Google Scholar.

I have deposited an output in a subject-based repository (e.g arXiv.org, RePEc), do I still have to deposit in the institutional repository?

It is not anticipated that these agreements will change publishing practices in terms of the proportion of Australian and New Zealand publications that come from each institution. It is expected that academics will continue to choose to publish in the venues that best suit their research, informed by disciplinary norms and local requirements.

Who will approve articles for publication? 

Yes, it is valuable to the University to have an institutional copy and, like journals, external locations may cease to exist or change their policies.

My external co-authors have already deposited the output in their repository can I deposit it in Research Commons as well?

Yes, you're welcome to deposit a copy in Research Commons even if there's a copy in another repository.

Will my article always be Open Access into the future? Even if the deal were to end?

Yes. Any article which is published as open access (OA) within these Read & Publish agreements will remain open access in perpetuity.

I can’t easily generate PDF files to submit, what do I do?

If you're having trouble generating a PDF, contact the Library at researchcommons@waikato.ac.nz for assistance.

Need Help?

Need Help?

For assistance, reach out to the Open Research Team at library@waikato.ac.nz.